Sports

Avs rookie O'Reilly credits maturity to his upbringing

TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 13: Ryan O'Reilly #37 of the Colorado Avalanche skates in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 13, 2009 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. The Avalanche defeated the Leafs 4-1. (Getty Images North America | Claus Andersen)

Ryan O'Reilly grew up with a brother and two sisters, so the family home on the prairie in Brucefield, Ontario, already would have been considered busy. Throw in 49 foster kids over the years, and what did you have?

"Crowded house," O'Reilly says, laughing.

Despite so many entities jockeying for space in the converted schoolhouse owned by Bonnie and Brian O'Reilly, love won out. Ryan O'Reilly and his three siblings received plenty of it from their parents, and so did 49 — and counting — foster kids.

O'Reilly credits having the opportunity to play hockey on a homemade rink with numerous kids for his fast rise to the professional ranks. And when he made the Avalanche out of training camp, he had 22 new friends to make, easy for someone used to a new group of housemates every year. Soon after he joined the Avs, teammates were talking about how mature he was for an 18-year-old. Now some within the organization are already viewing O'Reilly as a potential captain.

"He's so great with our three kids," said Avs veteran Darcy Tucker, who took in O'Reilly as a tenant this season, in the hockey tradition of billet families. "It's easy on me. I don't have to look after them anymore. They love him. They won't want to see him go. He's a very mature 18-year-old."

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O'Reilly's parents continue to serve as social workers for the province of Ontario. They currently host one foster child, and still have one daughter living at home.

"I think both Brian and I want to do work that's important and meets needs for others. We wanted to have some purpose in our life," Bonnie O'Reilly said. "It was always something we wanted to do, to help other kids, because we were always so fortunate. I grew up with 13 other brothers and sisters, so having lots of people around was pretty second nature to me."

Plenty of playmates

In December 1990, O'Reilly's parents, who worked for a social services agency that was in the process of closing, decided to take matters into their own hands — and home. In February a year later, Ryan was born, and he grew to think of his foster brothers and sisters as blood kin. Usually, there were no more than five foster kids — ranging from elementary-school age up to high school seniors — in the house, along with the four O'Reilly children.

Yeah, there were some tense moments, as expected, when kids are taken from their homes. But there also were lots of new friends to play with.

O'Reilly's parents, whose work was largely funded by the government, encouraged their children to make the foster kids feel at home.

"Looking back, I think now it might have been one of the best things that could have happened to me," O'Reilly said. "Not just with hockey, but with life. Some of them really had some tough times, and just learning how to live with them and get along with them just helps so much in life."

O'Reilly's older brother, Cal, who plays for the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League, sometimes wonders if Ryan is really the younger one.

"He's 18, but you probably wouldn't think so when you meet him. He seems a few years older," Cal O'Reilly said. "When you live with so many other kids like we did, I think you look back and realize it helped you be able to deal with a lot of different life situations. A lot of the kids had some really bad things happen to them, and were in and out of trouble, so to be able to get along with them and make friends with them helps you. We have our parents to thank for that."

Because his parents did their "work" from home, Ryan saw more of them than most kids do when growing up. But with a houseful of kids — who had beds in a big, converted basement and a couple more upstairs — the O'Reilly boys never lacked for playmates for endless hockey games.

"There was one guy named Jason Birch who just loved to go in the net. Once he came to our house, he started playing hockey for the first time and he just fell in love with it," Ryan said. "We'd have 4-on-4 hockey games at home every night. I was lucky to have other kids to play with like that, because it really did make me a better player. In a way, I have some of those kids to thank for where I am today."

Proud parents

Ryan still goes by the name of "Snook" to his parents, because at one point a foster child they cared for was named Ryan. To tell the Ryans apart, his father called his son Snook, an Irish term of endearment that means "Little Rascal."

"That's what he was too," Bonnie O'Reilly said. "But we're very proud of him. He's always been incredibly sensitive to other people who are hurting. His teachers in elementary and high school would always say how good he was with developmentally challenged youth. If someone else was hurting, he was always upset by that. He's always doing kind things and reaching out to people."

Said Ryan, "If I'm like that at all, it's only because of my mom and dad."

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